Tijuana wasn't as happening Thanksgiving night as they hoped, but that didn't stop Amber from riding the bull. She went down after about 2 split seconds and tried again but cheated using two hands.

Turkey Day and they left me with the stupid cat and went to Tijuana! This was their Mexican Fiesta Thanskgiving Dinner!

Wednesday night they went out to a L.A. bar and left me at home. I hear they had fun but Ericka got really sick. If I haven't mentioned Amber is CAT SITTING! If anyone doesn't already know... Ericka is HYSTERICALLY allergic to cats. However Amber said the girl who owns the cat is allergic too, and the cat is hypoallergenic (hypoallergenic cat...yah right) Well Ericka has been doped up on her inhaler and allergy pills and was still wheezing like crazy. So after all her medications and only three drinks, she had to go sit in the car because her head was spinning. I hear she missed George Clooney and Will from Will and Grace amongst a few others. (which normally she would care less about... but Amber said George Clooney looked even better in person) So Thursday morning luckily one of Roupen's cousins they went out with (Harak), who is a doctor called in a prescription for Prednisone. So we got out of a trip to the E.R.

We went to go visit Roupen's cousins and their very friendly guard dog at their car lot.

We arrived Sunday after the long scenic tour down Highway 1. Twelve hours instead of 5 or 6! Here is Amber's building.

This was a stop along Hwy 1. They wouldn't let me out of the car to look up close because I was barking...but they started it!

A lttle bird watching...LeRoy thinks the one flying is one of about ten condors left in the world! (It had a redish head)

Made a stop for $4.00 a gallon gas in Big Sur, on the way to L.A.

Help feed Ernie...Every time you visit his site PLEASE click on the Google ad above. You don't have to read it, you won't get any junk mail etc...But each time someone clicks on it Ernie receives like 1/10th a penny or something stupid like that. Won't you help Ernie with his Surf lessons this summer?

Now I'm a Vato!

11/20 Sunday morning...Well the hotel bed isn't bad but this town is kinda sketchy. We left our new home last night and an hour after leaving a gas station LeRoy realized he left his credit card there. We had to drive all the way back and got lost.
THEN after getting back on the road, LeRoy realized while in the middle of no where... that he lost his phone!!! We finally got to our hotel in Monteray Bay (the almost half marker to L.A.) at 11 p.m. (still haven't found the phone)
Then we drove around looking for a place to eat and realized we were in Salinas not Monteray. Instead of it being a sunny "surf town" this is more like "Vato Ville". Now we are heading to L.A. hopefully our luck gets better.

As if all this wasn't scary enough now I learn that we are going back on the road!!! (people are dying one block from our new home... read sign) We are leaving for L.A. to visit Amber for Thanksgiving and her birthday while they are rehabbing our new apartment.

Man they've lost they're minds...they're out shopping for surf boards!

Boy LeRoy and Ericka are in heaven now!!!! We took a walk around our new neighborhood and guess what we found a block from our apartment? A Russian grocery store! It's like we never left home. (except those Russians are much crankier than Ukrainians) Look at the case of cakes and all those cases with different kinds of sausage! (lucky me, they're pretty messy eaters and are always dropping stuff...yum)

Of course I'm going to miss that crazy Hollywood and his nutty dad Lindsay (Ericka loves this pic because it's the last time LeRoy was in a suit AND he's holding his brother Lindsay's hand and they're being nice to each other!), big ol' Blue, Ekko and Ethan (Ericka loves this old pic of Ethan)

Well they signed the lease! I know as long as I have my squeeky shoe I'm at home but now I'm realizing I'm really going to miss...
Lindsay, Carlotta (Gabi & Kris when they visit Chicago), Arek and Rozanna, and even their dumb cats! Oh and most of all...LESLEY!

LeRoy takes a walk along the Pacific to decide wether we want to take the apartment we found in outer Richmond. We are about a block from the ocean and people surf out here year round. It's kinda like living in Rogers Park if Rogers Park were safe and filled with laid back surfers. I hate the water but Iove running along the sand meeting all the neighborhood dogs. I think I'd love it here!

Today Ericka and LeRoy left me at the hotel and went driving around San Francisco. They ended up at a lovely Pub and noticed their beautiful collection of artwork...

What the hell? This is China Town, that cat should be on a plate!

Ericka says...as long as she knows where Prada and Neiman's are, she'll never be lost. The other place is a fabulous boutique she found in Haight Ashbury she loved. She can't seem to understand why with such great inexpensive boutiques the girls in San Fran don't seem to have any fashion sense. She only likes the few punk kids and hippy chicks she sees occasionally. Otherwise everyone (except the bums) are pretty conservative.

We finally found a place downtown on Jones St. that was very cute. The Halcyon Hotel has only weekly rates and allows dogs. The guy that showed us the apartment was extremely helpful and nice as can be. He has a brown bull dog who's really spastic. But I don’t mind, the poor guy was rescued from the pound. I can't even imagine...in my twelve years, I've never even seen what a cage looks like! We love our little room, it has a kitchen and claw foot tub. LeRoy and I really like it, Ericka says it's a bit “Sid and Nancy", but she doesn't mind.

We stayed two nights in cheasy motels before we found a place with weekly rates that took dogs. The only places that allowed dogs were really expencive places like the Four Season’s. Which would be fine if we were on vacation but we were trying to be frugal because this whole move was not going to be cheap. Ericka had to smuggle me in these motels in a blanket craddling me like I was a baby rocking me back and forth. However we especially liked the “Capri Motel”. Here you will see the lovely bronze art on our wall. Ericka was especially impressed by the 2”x4” personal hygene trash bags. There was also a paper napkin that read “this is to wipe your shoes”. Class all the way!

Some buildings Ericka liked in the Haight

Is that a SHARK ?????? Oh wow it's a surfer...in November!?

RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
SHARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was outside a San Francisco pizza joint.

They took the BART today and were all excited because the train stop was covered with Apple ads.

Oh here we go again...Ericka's getting hysterical because of LeRoy's driving. I do have to say these San Francisco streets are like riding a roller coaster (not that I've ever been on one). Driving up hill is really tough with all the extra weight the truck is carrying and when you get to the top it looks like the edge of the planet until you come flying straight back down the hill on the other side. Ericka is almost in tears and holding on to the roll bars for dear life, actually so is LeRoy!

I'm not sure where they've dragged me to now but these damn birds better keep to themselves, cause I don't wanna have too ruff em up!

Saturday, November 5th...After spending a night in San Jose (which was nothing to write about) we arrived in San Francisco. Once again I am dragged to water for photos. Supposedly this stupid bridge is one of the things that they were excited to see after driving across the whole damn country.

Thursday, November 3rd... Woke up and drove around Santa Cruz and I kept hearing them ramble on and on about how beautiful it was. But as I don’t like water OR Mountain cliffs I stayed close to the car when they went sight seeing. they decided this is where they wanted to live until we took a walk through town and some big ugly police officer told us there were no dogs aloud in town. And this is after they tried to walk me in a couple of parks but they too said no dogs allowed! We went back to the car and drove around a bit and even though they were starving they refused to spend what they called "good tourist money"” in that "“Nazi village"”. So it was off to San Jose.

Wednesday, November 2nd about noon... We left Mammoth and headed for San Francisco. We arrived at 8 p.m. and instead of stopping to rest LeRoy kept driving heading towards San Jose. Ericka was not happy AT ALL about this. Then as if Ericka foresaw the immanent doom to come...LeRoy took a wrong turn. We spent over two hours climbing up and down around sharpest mountain cliffs on a two lane dirt road. To our right was the Pacific looming hundreds of feet below, which we could only feel through the crisp wind as it was pitch black out. This was lucky as it couldn’t get any scarier for Ericka. When we finally found the only gas station for 100 miles LeRoy noticed Ericka quietly crying hysterically. She explained that it all reminded her of when she flipped a S.U.V. off a mountainous cliff only inches from rolling into the ocean when she spent a summer on Islesboro Island off of Maine almost 15 years ago.
We finally ended up in Santa Cruz and stopped for that cheap canned dog food I love so much and got a hotel room. Thanks to their guilty consciences for talking me on this hell trip, they’ve been feeding me the stuff they for some reason call “crap”. YUM!

Monday, October 31st... We drove to Bishop to help Elana on her visit to the dentist. When she was done we drove around the casino’s in town and they left me in the car again to go gamble. The weather is always a bit breezy but never cold so I really don’t mind but I pretend I do for more treats. Ericka and LeRoy lost about a total of $20 in change. Ericka said she won a bunch but kept losing it. LeRoy just kept losing, period! Ericka was upset because they were pitiful casino’s as they didn’t have Roulette tables and just nickel slots. They only spent about an hour or so inside and then we drove back to Mammoth. We hung out at Elana's house with many of her friends that come in and out as they please all hours of the day and night. She actually has people come and visit at 9 a.m. She's like the Pied Piper of Mammoth. At about midnight they left me and went to a night club in town for a Holloween celebration.

Summers Elana has off and makes her jewelry collection. She used to make clothes and Ericka especially loved her funky skirts. She hand makes all the beads she uses. There is an almost scientific approach to it. She makes the pictures in layers and rolls them and cuts them like sushi. It’s a crazy process. Ericka and LeRoy told her she should make custom designed beads. You could send her a picture of your dog (no cats aloud!) and she would make a cartoon replica of them and then make the beads. You know those crazy women with a million cats... they could sit all day rocking back and forth in their chairs and bead long necklaces with pictures of each of their filthy, in the house pooing, creatures. Ericka says kids would love them, she could do silly beads resembling each child.

Sunday, October 30th...Moved out of the cabin and in to stay with Elana. She had to take a two hour drive to the dentist in the morning and wanted us there to hold (or lick) her hand as she HATES the dentist. As you can see here even as a three year old (1972) Elana wanted to be a professional skier and that’s exactly what she is. As of last year she started to teach on Mammoth mountain.

Then they try to coax me in the springs with treats and telling me how warm the water is. I'm almost 12 years old, they should know better...never will I knowingly get wet or muddy! I will hold it for 3 days while it rains but suddenly they think I'm going to jump in a pool of water!

Saturday morning. Elana took us in her car through the mountains to the hot springs. On the way, in the middle of no where all of a sudden we saw cows crossing the road right in front of us. So what do they do...they force me out of the car for pictures. Can you imagine, like I haven't been abused enough this trip now they are trying to risk my life!

After a wonderful night of all of us resting on actual beds we headed back to Elana's. We stopped at the grocery store (Von's) a block away (well they stopped, I was left in the car as usual) and they hit the jackpot once again... I hear that as they were checking out at the register, the teller told them they won a DVD Player. Serendipity, as Elana's had just broken the night before so they gave it to her.

Well G...

Friday 8 p.m. Mammoth, CA, finally arrived at Elana’s. She was sweet enough to offer that we stay with her (which was fine by me as I had already fallen in love with her and her couch) but as Ericka was so damn cranky and wanted "her own space without invading on someone elses", Alana called a friend that owns Pinecove cabins. We got there and were greeted by a dog that looked like Hollywood (black lab mix). Loved the place already but I geuss the real reason we stayed is because Ericka said it was an adorable two story rustic cabin in the woods and she loved it. We got to stay here for two days and every morning I was picked up by the neihborhood dogs. It was great, I was one of the gang. There was a red and white Pointer, an Irish Setter, two Huskies and they would walk up to our cabin every morning. I would bark and Ericka would let me run free with them for a while. The weather was sunny and warm and I was in doggy heaven.

Friday 3 p.m. We arrived in Reno where they told me we would stay the night so I could sleep on a real bed. However when we got there I heard them rambling nonsence about how it looked like, "the toothless white trash cousin to Vegas" and they wanted to get out a.s.a.p. as it was depressing. We drove in circles looking for a wireless internet connection when they found a cute area known as the Arts District. After another hour of me being in the car they came back feeling much better because they sat in this hip coffee house "Java Jungle” and were served Ericka's favorite beer (Fat Tire) that she hadn't had since she lived in Colorado. I geuss LeRoy chatted up the bartender, the ex-military guy that lived upstairs, and the retired couple from Wisconsin. They Skyped Tracy and Arek, then when they got back to the car they said we were headed to stay in Lake Tahoe. Again this was another place I was supposedly going to love. I could get out of the damn car and run around the lake and find other dogs to smell their butts.(I HATE the water!) Then I heard them call Elana and she said Tahoe was out of the way to get to her house. A bit of a fight broke out as Ericka was acting as bitchy as I was feeling. They had only about 4 hours sleep in 2 days and she couldn't bear to go on without a bed and a bath. She also didn't want to meet LeRoy's oldest friend stinky and cranky. LeRoy won the fight as usual and we all treaded on to Mammoth, CA.

Nevada...Not sure what it's for, but we keep seeing these signs everywhere

Winnemucca, Nevada Friday 7 a.m. Headed out of "hell" as the rain finally stopped. 2 p.m. Now in Nevada where we pulled in to the BP/Gas & Casino. Ericka came back to the car jumping up and down because she put one quarter in a slot machine and won 25. I’m no mathmatician dog but my calculation says that's not worth a jump.

Friday 5 a.m. When she finally got out of the mountains and pulled over, we all started to breath again. I think I heard Ericka saying a prayer under her breath thanking God she was still alive (dramatic again). We pulled into what seemed to be the hill leading to the Bates Motel! It was like the official last stop for any ghost truck drivers and their dilapidated cabs. We were f
orced to nap here as the next stop wouldn’t be for another 70 miles. (camera battery died so I don't have any real proof of the actually scariness)

Thursday evening...I’ve never been so scared!!! As my claws were clenched, we came through beautiful Park City, UT as it started to POUR. Since Ericka fell for the “don’t replace them, fix them” wiper lotion...we were now in trouble as we drove up and down the twisty turny mountain cliffs in the pitch black storm without wiper blades. She drove about 25 miles an hour while the natives flew past us. Earlier she was bragging about how great a mountain driver she is because she lived in Colorado for awhile...but it would seem that she has forgot all she learned!

Okay, so maybe the truck isn’t so bad. But don’t tell them that because everytime they look back at me, I frown and then they
give me treats because they feel so bad.

Thursday 8 a.m. They made a stop in some po dunk town and started freaking because their newly replaced gas tank was once again leaking gas. I heard them call LeRoy's friend Elana and they decided we must drive straight through till we get to Elana'’s in Mammoth, CA. If they keep the tank only 3/4th full and get it checked out in Mammoth we should be okay. After that freak out, Ericka started screaming because she heard that the White Sox won the World Series on the radio! She never took me to a "“Dog Day",” game like she always promised, so I can only laugh that LeRoy is teasing her for liking baseball in the first place.

Ericka is telling LeRoy that she hopes Roupen and Lizabeth had great Birthdays Tuesday. She'’s also giggling as she tells him about all the fun Pinto family pictures she scanned on to her computer while at his mothers. (LeRoy does not look amused at all!)

Lesley should be proud, as she made us an amazing “on the road” compilation. Barry White, Bee Gee’s with a little Billy Bragg and Nick Cave thrown in...can’t beat it!